Starting in April this year, Baidu App launched the "What's Underwater" series of "Earth Roaming Project", and joined the unbounded deep blue to launch the first deep underwater live broadcast of the entire network. They hope to make the outside world pay attention to the environmental issues of the domestic underwater world through live broadcasting. The choice of the first live broadcast is Qiandao Lake, which is known as "the first show in the world".

Ancient underwater architecture of Qiandao Lake photographed by drone during the underwater live broadcast of "Earth Roaming Project"
Just as Columbus discovered that the New World is inseparable from the support of nautical technology, today's convenient underwater live broadcast is also inseparable from the support of new technology.
"Because technology gives us more possibilities and creativity. The direct change brought about by technological progress is the flexibility of shooting. The original live broadcast team may require divers to bring large equipment into the water. Now we choose to be unmanned underwater. It’s very convenient. For content creation or live improvisation, Ma Jiang, director of the "What's Underwater" series of Baidu's "Earth Roaming Project," told Peng Pai News.
Ma Jiang made a comparison during the interview: This time their team used only 12 people and the cost was relatively low. Compared with the live broadcast of traditional TV media a few years ago, the cost at that time was huge, and even required a live broadcast team of hundreds of people and a dozen broadcast trucks.
The underwater drone BW Space Pro used by the Ma Jiang team is the world's first underwater drone with intelligent functions.
With the rise of the live broadcast wave, underwater drone live broadcast seems to be the next blue ocean, but is this market mature, and what are the challenges in the future? Talked about the layout and future challenges of the underwater drone market.

The underwater drone market is overseas
"At that time, the underwater drone market was still a field that few people entered, but the market responded well. I the market's choice to enter this field.
In the field of aerial drones, leading manufacturers such as DJI drones have emerged. In contrast, the underwater drone has not yet emerged as a leader. "In the field of global consumer-grade underwater drones, domestic technology should generally be ahead of foreign countries, and manufacturers are concentrated in China. According to public statistics, there are about a dozen domestic companies doing underwater consumption in Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou and Shenzhen. Class drone.
In 2018, the smart tracking underwater drone BW Space launched by Youken focuses on underwater intelligent tracking. According to official data, the main parameters of BW Space are: the fastest running speed: 1.5m/s; the maximum diving depth: 100 meters; the battery working time: 5-7 hours (the maximum still shooting time in water is 7 hours, and the following shooting time is 5 Hours); video resolution: 4K (3840 x 2160, 30fps).
Consumers' curiosity about the underwater world is the key to the rise of underwater drones. But the acceptance of the domestic market is not as high as the overseas market. Youcan Robot has conducted a survey on its own customer group and found that the main players and markets of consumer-grade underwater drones are concentrated in foreign countries.
"There is a group of people overseas, around 40 years old, with the spirit of adventure and exploration, like travel and extreme sports, strong economic strength, and low price sensitivity. Unlike domestic players, overseas players prefer to go ahead and experience some of the "black" Technology Products.

Aiming at the market that blooms in the wall and incense outside the wall, Youcan Robot established a partner organization in New York, USA, and established Youcan Japan Co., Ltd. in Japan.
"Japanese players are older, aged 50-60 years old, but their knowledge is very professional, and most of them are users in the industry, such as aquaculture farmers and underwater survey agencies. Underwater drones come to them It is not only a hobby point, but also a good tool to help you develop your career.
The shooting of the underwater environment is affected by factors such as natural light, water environment, and water quality. Underwater drones need to be optimized and compensated for imaging effects through algorithms based on these factors. Youcan Robotics said that since the launch of BW Space, the team has upgraded the product several times in response to user feedback.
As for the next step of Youcan Robot, Youcan Robot has taken into account when doing research on consumer drone design. "When we communicate with some consumer-level customers, users have put forward various needs, such as hoping to carry a gripper on an underwater drone for underwater retrieval; or installing a spray gun tube to clean the algae and shells attached to the hull, etc. From the feedback of these users, we have dug out the more stable demand of underwater drones in the B-end market.
How big is the B-end market? High-value industries such as underwater oil exploration, natural gas exploration, dam inspection (engineering inspection), ship overhaul and maintenance are B-end businesses, and this also means that underwater drones need not only the function of image capture, but also the need for There are functions such as positioning, data processing, cleaning, surveying and mapping, as well as better sealing (larger dive depth) and stable data transmission lines.
It is worth mentioning that, in cooperation with the Baidu APP Earth Roaming Program, Youcan's UAVs have been able to achieve very stable data transmission when performing underwater tasks.
"Under such extreme environments, the challenge of outdoor underwater live broadcasting is still very big, but in the process of underwater shooting and live broadcasting, the performance of the underwater underwater drone of Youcan basically meets our expectations. In the live broadcast process of Qiandao Lake underwater ancient city, Guangxi underground karst cave, Panjiakou underwater great wall and other complex waters, it can achieve nearly two hours of underwater video signal transmission.
But it is not easy to stand firm in the B-end market. Image transmission, underwater tracking and recognition are the strengths of the Youcan robot.